I am new to turning, but not woodworking, nor carpentry and related skills. I pick things up pretty quickly; after all, these are highly transferable skills.
I am focusing on buying the lathe first, due to current global market conditions. Might as well get on the backorder list now, if I do buy a new machine. Not everything is backordered either, but the Laguna lathes are, and the 18" is on my short list
I know people say "the lathe is only half the cost", but if I bought a Robust and some basic starter tools, that's not entirely correct. I could buy a HF t*rd and a nice chuck and spend over half the budget on the non-lathe. The point being made to newbies is not to forget that the lathe is not a stand-alone tool. Got it.
So the cost formula for starting The Habit is going to be [Lathe] + [sharpening tools] + [cutting tools] + [work bench and tool storage]. I probably missed something, perhaps an electrician's bill and better lighting, but let's stuff those in the last category, call it "workshop" and move on. Execution order will be as shown in my formula, with the exception that the shop is going to be built up intermittently as time and materials present themselves.
Budget: Right now I have just barely enough to buy a Revo 18|36, and that's it. I will have small amounts of money coming in regularly, so I could blow it all on that one. I just missed a good sale on the Harvey T40, which would have put me well into the second leg of the purchase.
I would be OK with a used lathe. I do still need to contact my local chapter. I have a beefy 4Runner, so I could transport something pretty significant and a few states away if I need to. "Buy a used one" sounds easy, but I am beiong sort of picky about the lathe, since it is a big chunk. I see the Harvey as a better investment than the 18|36, but I think I would rather have the 18, all else being equal. But do I prefer that? Do I know what's best for me? That's why I am here.
What am I going to turn?
Bowls, goblets, platters, boxes, and eventually hollow forms will probably grab me. I might make a chess set, just because, but spindles don't interest me much. I own a nice handmade pen and appreciate them for the skill and precision needed, but my eyes are not so great with or without my glasses, and it would likely get on my nerves. These projects are going to demand swing, +1 for the Revo.
I am going to try to make some money doing this, but I will not quit my day job just yet.
I'm not in it for the money, but if it paid for itself, great. If it put some food on the table, even better. I have not researched this angle enough to decide whether to be serious about the prospect or if it is unrealistic for my situation.
For new lathes, I have it narrowed down to the Harvey T40, a Revo 15 or 18, and the Nova Galaxi pops onto and off the list. If I were able to get a Jet for the prices of last year, I would consider the 16" or 18" models, but for the features they have at the price points they are now, they don't compete with the T40, Revos, or Galaxi. They used to, sort of, when they were about 15% cheaper than they are now.
Grizzly is off the list. I get the impression they are flimsier, not as precise, etc. I am willing to pay for quality, but I cannot afford PM and above. I actually don't like the PM headstock geometry either. Big-Boxy Blockhead rules out most of the grizzlies too.
Galaxi first: I mentioned elsewhere that I didn't want a "computerized lathe", but that may have been vague. I got a little skittish about this with the Galaxi. I do (probably) want a VSD. I do want the catch-sensing and motor stopping from a basic VSD, and torque adjustment...maybe. I don't want it adjusting the speed to something I didn't ask for, or having to program it and all that. I am attracted to power-saving, but wonder what it does to the user experience. I know I probably don't have to use that stuff, but I will be paying for it. I also don't like having an expensive circuit board, especially if I am shunning 90% of what it does. It's another system that can fail, and an expensive one. A simpler VSD should typically have a cheaper brain, and a simpler one. I will use my car as an analogy: I cannot start it without pushing down the clutch. The car also has ABS braking. One feature is in complete control, while the other one depends on what the user is doing -- but still saves your hide. All these are great. But I do NOT want something like a $4,000 computer in my car and systems checking for lane departure (and distracting the heck out of the driver with the constant ding-ding-ding even though I am in my lane!), self-parking, and other sloth-inducing, mind-numbing or downright annoying and distracting features. I would even want to be able to bog down a VSD a little, which I think it tries to prevent (they all do, yes?). Getting feedback from an analog machine, from the tires on the road and the body sway in my MR2 to having a machine motor groan a little bit are where some of the man-machine Zen is. I would never dream of writing software that played a video game for me or watched movies for me. I don't want a lathe doing my turnings for me, and wonder if I want all the "help" that Galaxi is offering. I don't really know how much help I want at all, and apparently I want contradictory features of being able to bog the machine a little for sublime feedback, but stop me if I screw up and I'm gonna toss a piece through the wall or explode a chisel. Am I asking too much? Does Galaxi do this and other VSDs do not, or do they do it better? If I could set my own rules about when it helps me and when it doesn't, then that would be something special and worth considering.
Revo 18|36: Ouch on the purchase price here. (Galaxi hurts too, but they all will). There is a ton to love about this lathe if the banjo is as nice as they say it is, and having only two bearings is acceptable. As to the latter, they did put the two far apart, so the extra leverage is going to help, but the front bearing is still taking a lot more than a two-bearing lathe would. Otherwise, this thing looks fantastic and aside from being at the top of my price range, somewhat painfully, the only other hesitation is, yes, the customer service and some of the stories of getting dud headstocks and having to pay extra to get a replacement. To be fair, I have heard about this from Nova/Teknatool too. I hear Laguna customer service is getting better, but it still gives me pause. So this lathe has a couple of downsides, but I'm sure I'd love having one. It has plenty of swing, power and mass. I would like to hear opinions about whether steel bedwayses are better than cast iron. One gets durability and rust resistance, one is better at vibration dampening. Always a trade-off, but which one is the better trade?
T40: A couple of days ago, this lathe was $300 cheaper than a Revo 15|24. That was terrible compelling, as this looks like the best-built lathe of the three. They are giving $150 off on the legs too, which is still being offered. This machine looks to be the most solidly built of the three, with a really nice motor. The price premium is real and significant in terms of comparison/ratio, but not terribly high in absolute terms. For my turning swing will matter, but a little beast like this that I can still move would be nice too. The 15|36 Revo also has that aspect, but given that is is the same price as a T40, there is no compelling advantage to the Revo 15|36 unless you don't have 220. I do have 220, so the Revo 15 is out, T40 wins... by a lot. The rotating headstock on the T40 is something I think I would take advantage of and appreciate, but it doesn't throw the 18" Revo out of the race. This one might hold its value better than the other two, but it is also one you just wouldn't sell, and I think I could get a lot of mileage out of it before I really, truly need more swing. I will *want* more swing much sooner than I actually need it, if ever. One thing I hesitate with on the T40, however, is the wimpy-looking cantilever outboard attachment. The rest of the machine looks over-build and heavy, but that looks like a TV antenna. I might just buy a bed extension and have a braket made to let me mount it on the headstock end of the bed at an angle, or perhaps on a lockable hinge. Maybe looks are deceiving and the cantilever arm is fine. Would like to hear feedback from someone who has used one.
Thanks for reading, I hope I get some good feedback here, and more candidates in the field would be better. I could invite consideration of the Jet lathes, I might have missed something (like three bearings instead of two; I'm looking at you, Laguna). It's a tough decision and my funding is non-infinite, so I want to make it a good one.
I am focusing on buying the lathe first, due to current global market conditions. Might as well get on the backorder list now, if I do buy a new machine. Not everything is backordered either, but the Laguna lathes are, and the 18" is on my short list
I know people say "the lathe is only half the cost", but if I bought a Robust and some basic starter tools, that's not entirely correct. I could buy a HF t*rd and a nice chuck and spend over half the budget on the non-lathe. The point being made to newbies is not to forget that the lathe is not a stand-alone tool. Got it.
So the cost formula for starting The Habit is going to be [Lathe] + [sharpening tools] + [cutting tools] + [work bench and tool storage]. I probably missed something, perhaps an electrician's bill and better lighting, but let's stuff those in the last category, call it "workshop" and move on. Execution order will be as shown in my formula, with the exception that the shop is going to be built up intermittently as time and materials present themselves.
Budget: Right now I have just barely enough to buy a Revo 18|36, and that's it. I will have small amounts of money coming in regularly, so I could blow it all on that one. I just missed a good sale on the Harvey T40, which would have put me well into the second leg of the purchase.
I would be OK with a used lathe. I do still need to contact my local chapter. I have a beefy 4Runner, so I could transport something pretty significant and a few states away if I need to. "Buy a used one" sounds easy, but I am beiong sort of picky about the lathe, since it is a big chunk. I see the Harvey as a better investment than the 18|36, but I think I would rather have the 18, all else being equal. But do I prefer that? Do I know what's best for me? That's why I am here.
What am I going to turn?
Bowls, goblets, platters, boxes, and eventually hollow forms will probably grab me. I might make a chess set, just because, but spindles don't interest me much. I own a nice handmade pen and appreciate them for the skill and precision needed, but my eyes are not so great with or without my glasses, and it would likely get on my nerves. These projects are going to demand swing, +1 for the Revo.
I am going to try to make some money doing this, but I will not quit my day job just yet.
I'm not in it for the money, but if it paid for itself, great. If it put some food on the table, even better. I have not researched this angle enough to decide whether to be serious about the prospect or if it is unrealistic for my situation.For new lathes, I have it narrowed down to the Harvey T40, a Revo 15 or 18, and the Nova Galaxi pops onto and off the list. If I were able to get a Jet for the prices of last year, I would consider the 16" or 18" models, but for the features they have at the price points they are now, they don't compete with the T40, Revos, or Galaxi. They used to, sort of, when they were about 15% cheaper than they are now.
Grizzly is off the list. I get the impression they are flimsier, not as precise, etc. I am willing to pay for quality, but I cannot afford PM and above. I actually don't like the PM headstock geometry either. Big-Boxy Blockhead rules out most of the grizzlies too.
Galaxi first: I mentioned elsewhere that I didn't want a "computerized lathe", but that may have been vague. I got a little skittish about this with the Galaxi. I do (probably) want a VSD. I do want the catch-sensing and motor stopping from a basic VSD, and torque adjustment...maybe. I don't want it adjusting the speed to something I didn't ask for, or having to program it and all that. I am attracted to power-saving, but wonder what it does to the user experience. I know I probably don't have to use that stuff, but I will be paying for it. I also don't like having an expensive circuit board, especially if I am shunning 90% of what it does. It's another system that can fail, and an expensive one. A simpler VSD should typically have a cheaper brain, and a simpler one. I will use my car as an analogy: I cannot start it without pushing down the clutch. The car also has ABS braking. One feature is in complete control, while the other one depends on what the user is doing -- but still saves your hide. All these are great. But I do NOT want something like a $4,000 computer in my car and systems checking for lane departure (and distracting the heck out of the driver with the constant ding-ding-ding even though I am in my lane!), self-parking, and other sloth-inducing, mind-numbing or downright annoying and distracting features. I would even want to be able to bog down a VSD a little, which I think it tries to prevent (they all do, yes?). Getting feedback from an analog machine, from the tires on the road and the body sway in my MR2 to having a machine motor groan a little bit are where some of the man-machine Zen is. I would never dream of writing software that played a video game for me or watched movies for me. I don't want a lathe doing my turnings for me, and wonder if I want all the "help" that Galaxi is offering. I don't really know how much help I want at all, and apparently I want contradictory features of being able to bog the machine a little for sublime feedback, but stop me if I screw up and I'm gonna toss a piece through the wall or explode a chisel. Am I asking too much? Does Galaxi do this and other VSDs do not, or do they do it better? If I could set my own rules about when it helps me and when it doesn't, then that would be something special and worth considering.
Revo 18|36: Ouch on the purchase price here. (Galaxi hurts too, but they all will). There is a ton to love about this lathe if the banjo is as nice as they say it is, and having only two bearings is acceptable. As to the latter, they did put the two far apart, so the extra leverage is going to help, but the front bearing is still taking a lot more than a two-bearing lathe would. Otherwise, this thing looks fantastic and aside from being at the top of my price range, somewhat painfully, the only other hesitation is, yes, the customer service and some of the stories of getting dud headstocks and having to pay extra to get a replacement. To be fair, I have heard about this from Nova/Teknatool too. I hear Laguna customer service is getting better, but it still gives me pause. So this lathe has a couple of downsides, but I'm sure I'd love having one. It has plenty of swing, power and mass. I would like to hear opinions about whether steel bedwayses are better than cast iron. One gets durability and rust resistance, one is better at vibration dampening. Always a trade-off, but which one is the better trade?
T40: A couple of days ago, this lathe was $300 cheaper than a Revo 15|24. That was terrible compelling, as this looks like the best-built lathe of the three. They are giving $150 off on the legs too, which is still being offered. This machine looks to be the most solidly built of the three, with a really nice motor. The price premium is real and significant in terms of comparison/ratio, but not terribly high in absolute terms. For my turning swing will matter, but a little beast like this that I can still move would be nice too. The 15|36 Revo also has that aspect, but given that is is the same price as a T40, there is no compelling advantage to the Revo 15|36 unless you don't have 220. I do have 220, so the Revo 15 is out, T40 wins... by a lot. The rotating headstock on the T40 is something I think I would take advantage of and appreciate, but it doesn't throw the 18" Revo out of the race. This one might hold its value better than the other two, but it is also one you just wouldn't sell, and I think I could get a lot of mileage out of it before I really, truly need more swing. I will *want* more swing much sooner than I actually need it, if ever. One thing I hesitate with on the T40, however, is the wimpy-looking cantilever outboard attachment. The rest of the machine looks over-build and heavy, but that looks like a TV antenna. I might just buy a bed extension and have a braket made to let me mount it on the headstock end of the bed at an angle, or perhaps on a lockable hinge. Maybe looks are deceiving and the cantilever arm is fine. Would like to hear feedback from someone who has used one.
Thanks for reading, I hope I get some good feedback here, and more candidates in the field would be better. I could invite consideration of the Jet lathes, I might have missed something (like three bearings instead of two; I'm looking at you, Laguna). It's a tough decision and my funding is non-infinite, so I want to make it a good one.
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